Saturday, February 23, 2013

Dan Rather still can't admit he lied

It's been nine years since Dan Rather got caught in a lie for publishing a report that claimed that George W. Bush went AWOL from the National Guard. Not only can Rather not admit he was wrong, he still disdains the media that caught him.

Rather said good reporting was in decline, and with the "new
Internet," "traditional journalism" remains "so susceptible to
manipulation, deception, and distraction that it allows lies to get
started and then spread like mildew in a damp basement."

Rather and Schultz were criticizing conservative new media outlets
like Breitbart News for writing stories about President Barack Obama's
nominee for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's refusal to disclose financial documents in his confirmation hearings.

Rather sorrowfully recounted his glory days, when the American
mainstream media "was the gold standard for the world." If a reporter
received false information from a source, he claimed, "he found it out
because he wore out shoe leather, he made telephone calls, his
organization had other reporters who would check it out, and they've
exposed the lie."

Rather resigned from CBS News in 2004 when bloggers—not the anchor or
his peers—proved he based an election-year report on forged documents
which he claimed were evidence that former President George W. Bush went
AWOL from National Guard duty in the 1970s.

Rather continued by saying Americans need to be reminded of what he
believed was the shoddy journalism of conservative new media outlets
because "there is a residue of people who say, listen, it was in the
newspaper, it must be true, or it was on television, it must be true."

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About Me

I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-three years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 10 to 31 years and seven grandchildren. Our eldest daughter and eldest son are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com